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Top designer Hemant Trivedi in a coma after car accident

Lata Khubchandani in Bombay

One of India's top designers, Hemant Trivedi, is battling for his life at Bombay's Lilavati Hospital after a car accident on his way to the airport to take a flight to Ahmedabad to attend a function organised by the National Institute of Fashion Technology.

Trivedi, 39, perhaps the only male graduate of the Western Australian Institute of Design, Perth, has been an inspiration for practically all the designers in India today. Says health and fitness instructor Mickey Mehta, "He recently put Sheetal [a leading clothing store in Bombay] on the world map by the kind of work he did for them last year."

When Trivedi's car met with the accident, he was first taken to a municipal hospital. It was only when his cellphone rang and the police answered that they were able to inform the caller of Trivedi's condition. Dhiren Shah of Sheetal then rushed to the hospital and had him shifted to Lilavati.

Trivedi's parents live in Australia and are on their way to Bombay, but sources revealed that they do not know how critically injured their son is.

Miss World Yukta Mookhey said, "I've just come back from the hospital. He's unconscious. He has broken his arm and collar bone and hurt the back of his head, so brain damage is suspected, but further tests can only be done when he regains consciousness.

"I can't believe so many hours were wasted, four hours or so, before he could be treated. He is on life support and stable, so we're hoping that in 24 hours we might see a change. They do say there's a little improvement since yesterday morning... we should know more in a couple of days," she added.

Mookhey said she had known Trivedi for about a year and a half. "I consider myself a product of his grooming -- it is because of his efforts that I got polished during the Miss India contest. He's a wonderful person -- simple, loving, warm and very intelligent, very creative."

Mehta said, "I've known him for seven years and worked closely with him for 5 -- his meticulous perfectionism is well known. He's actually trained a lot of designers who are working today. He's very creative. If he's seen as temperamental, it's because he is targeting perfection. It was the clothes he designed for Yukta Mookhey for the Miss World contest that gave her an aura. He's done so many other people, like Diana Hayden.

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